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Kljestan/Eskandarian for Emilio/Wells

Would you make this trade?

This will be the first in a series of posts this offseason with trade suggestions for DC United. I'll try to post one every other week or so. It's your chance to act as the GM and voice your opinion about what roster moves the team should make this offseason. All the trade proposals will be fairly balanced in a way that could conceivably help both teams. Of course you can feel free to argue for or against each trade in the comments section.

Sacha Kljestan and Alecko Eskandarian
While calling the playoff match between Chivas and RSL, one of the FSC commentators said something I tend to agree with: Sacha Kljestan appears ready to take the next step and join the national team elite. This is an element that's been missing from DC United for many years now, with the brief exception of Olsen's participation in the World Cup. We don't have any standout American players. With Kljestan, we would be gaining an experienced and talented winger who earned 5 goals and 7 assists this year. With the return of the journeyman Eskandarian, we would have another option at forward ahead of Khumalo. Of course the downside is that we would have to count on missing both of these players at some points during the season: Kljestan for national team duty, and Eskandarian for his regular bouts with injuries.

Luciano Emilio and Zach Wells
After being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs each of the last two years, with a total of only 2 goals in 4 games, Chivas USA is bound to be in the market for a proven attacking player. And after the departure of Guzan, they should also be looking to add another goalkeeper who can compete with Kennedy and Thornton for the starting job. In Emilio, DC would be losing their top scorer from each of the past two seasons. But as we've already noted, maybe Doe should already be starting ahead of Emilio, and with Eskandarian, we would have a quality backup to step in whenever Doe or Moreno needs a rest. Wells wouldn't be a big loss since he's already lost his starting job to Crayton, and Thorpe just might be a good enough backup for us.